1 Perfect One Day in Belgrade Serbia

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Greetings Internet Stranger and welcome to one day in Belgrade, Serbia. On our last 24 hours in Belgrade, we went exploring the city on our own and learned about the Belgrade Fortress and Serbian art. Today we’ll have a little assistance with the help of a friendly local and get off the beaten track, Serbian-style.

We’re going explore the hidden nooks and crannies of Belgrade, see the largest Orthodox church you have probably ever been to, find the most cutting edge art, and dine al fresco. Sound too good to be true? Well, I promise you that this one day in Belgrade is exactly good enough to be true.

One Day in Belgrade

Where to Stay?

I highly recommend the Envoy Hotel in Belgrade for your one day in Belgrade. It is a luxury hotel at mid-range prices. The location right in the center of Belgrade couldn’t be more convenient, the staff was extremely helpful and spoke perfect English, and the breakfast spread every morning was to die for. Even the breakfast meats were amazing! (As we will see, meat is a big theme in Serbia.)

If you’d like to find a great deal on the Envoy, click here.

And if you want to explore the best prices on tons of other hotels in Belgrade, just click here. This search engine will help you find the perfect place to stay for your one day in Belgrade. With hundreds of options to choose from, I’m sure you’ll find something for your schedule and budget.

One Day in Belgrade

Morning: Yummy Food Tour of Belgrade

Belgrade is such a fascinating city that there’s more than enough to fill a food tour during one day in Belgrade. If you’re anything like me, you didn’t know much about Serbian food before attempting this one day in Belgrade. In fact, the only thing I knew about Serbian food was what I had heard from a Serbian-American acquaintance who told me that Serbia was famous for meat.

Well, Serbia IS famous for meat, but Serbian cuisine has a lot more to offer than just meat. There’s also a lot of very strong alcohol. So if you like meat and booze, and what red-blooded American doesn’t, you’ll love this food tour of Belgrade.

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I can’t guarantee that you’ll eat everything I ate, but I can give you my best bet that you’ll have a fabulous time. Check out the

Approximately Top 5: One Day in Belgrade Food Tour

1) ? Tavern

Let’s start our morning the healthy way with some booze! That light brown liquid you see in the glass above is rakia, which is a fruit brandy you can find all over the Balkans. Each Balkan country claims to have the best, so the only solution is to drink rakia in every country and see which you prefer. That’s just science.

Of course we don’t want to fall asleep, so I paired the rakia with a strong Turkish coffee and a little Turkish delight candy. Serbia was once part of the Ottoman Empire, and Turkish-style coffee is still very popular there. But the best part of this breakfast was the restaurant itself! ? Tavern is the oldest restaurant in Belgrade.

You might wonder how a tavern’s name could possibly be a ? Was it founded by the 1960s one-hit wonder band ? and the Mysterians? Supposedly the tavern got its name because it is across the street from the cathedral, so it wasn’t allowed to serve alcohol. That’s why they needed to keep their name hidden.

2) Princess Ljubica’s Residence

This might be a controversial opinion, but I think that historical house museums are some of the most fascinating cultural attractions in the world. It’s like you get your own personal DeLorean to travel back through time and see how the dead lived. All that’s missing is a flux capacitor and Dr. Brown.

Plus the homes are more beautiful than most homes you get to visit under ordinary circs, so it’s also like getting to take a stroll through the pages of Architectural Digest. And lucky for us, the Princess Ljubica’s Residence in Belgrade is just such a museum.

Princess Ljubica was the wife of a Prince of Serbia during the 19th century. She was apparently not very attractive and had a mustache, but she got to be a Serbian princess and I never have, so who am I to judge?

My favorite thing about this house is that you can see how Serbia transitioned from the Turkish style to the Austro-Hungarian style just by walking through the rooms. One of these rooms is Turkish…

And one is Austro-Hungarian…

Can you tell which is which? Even if you’re not an expert on Ottoman furnishings, you’ll be able to tell that the Austro-Hungarians were the ones who sat on uncomfortable chairs instead of cushions. No one was going to make a Hapsburg be comfortable!

3) National Bank of Serbia

This seems like a strange place to visit on a walking tour. Is any bank that different from any other bank? But the visitor center of the National Bank of Serbia is kind of like a little museum as well as a bank.

Serbia has been part of so many different countries, so if you’ve ever wanted to get your eyes on some sweet Yugoslavian currency here is your chance. And it’s much cheaper to see the currency than it is to buy a Yugo car.

On top of the chance to see Yugoslavian currency, I definitely recommend visiting this bank because you’ll get a special treat.

If you ask nicely, they take a photo of you and print your face on a (fake) Serbian bill. So now I can go around telling people I’m the Princess of Serbia or something. I’m pretty sure most Americans don’t even know who the real Princess of Serbia is…

4) Market Time

Are you getting hungry, Internet Stranger? A rakia and very strong coffee not enough food for the entire day? Then you’ll be pleased to know we’re stopping at a market which is about 100 years old. While my food above might look a little strange, rest assured that it is one of the scrummiest things I have ever put in my face. (And by scrummy, I mean both scrumptious and yummy.)

The Serbs are world-renowned for their prowess with meat and this special meat preparation is called tobacco. I assume that they call it tobacco because it resembles the plant, because it definitely doesn’t taste like tobacco, and I know because I used to smoke to annoy my mother when I was sixteen.

Instead of tasting like something you’d smoke, this concoction is sort of like pulled pork that melts in your mouth. I prefer to call it Meat Cotton Candy. Ron Swanson would go nuts for this stuff.

But if you don’t eat meat, don’t worry! There’s something at the market for you because you can still enjoy some fine white Serbian cheeses! Look at how fresh they are! You can practically hear them mooing. MOOOOOOO!

My favorite fun fact I learned on the tour is that according to my guide, Robert de Niro worked at this market when he was a young man spending some time in Serbia. (This was definitely pre-Godfather II.)

De Niro even named his daughter Drena after the river that runs in between Serbia and Bosnia. How’s that for some Belgrade love?

5) Skadarlija

Every city needs a fun Bohemian District if it doesn’t want to become simply too boring. Paris has Montmartre, my hometown NYC has Greenwich Village, and Scranton, PA has…something I am sure.

I happen to live in Greenwich Village and if you email me to tell me the real Bohemian District of NYC is Williamsburg, I will ban you from this website. Not a joke.

In Belgrade, the Bohemians live it up in Skadarlija, which you can see in my photo above. It’s got everything a good Bohemian District needs: cobblestones, places to drink outdoors, and ME looking adorable in sunglasses! What more can you ask for? We stopped here for a beer and some chitchat, and I recommend you do the same.

24 Hour Tip

That’s all the secrets of the one day in Belgrade food tour that I can share with you because I have otherwise been sworn to secrecy. You’ll have to book the tour for yourself if you want to find out more of the secrets for yourself.

Check rates and availability right here!

One Day in Belgrade Itinerary

Afternoon: Explore the Beauty of Belgrade

I have literally never seen Belgrade on a list of most beautiful cities in the world. (If you have, please send that list my way and prove me wrong) But that doesn’t mean Belgrade should feel unpretty! There are plenty of gorgeous spots in Serbia’s capital if you know where to look, and I definitely want to show them to you.

I encourage you to spend some time after the tour is over exploring Belgrade on your own without a set itinerary so you can find your own charming treasures. It will make your one day in Belgrade even more memorable. But I will be happy to get you started with…

Three Fun Facts: Beautiful Belgrade

1) What is this building?

This, my Internet Stranger, is the Hotel Moskva, and it’s one of the most interesting buildings in Belgrade. This hotel was built over 100 years ago, so it’s impressive it’s lasted this long given all of the conflict in Belgrade since that time. This majestic hotel is built in a Russian style, which you can probably tell from the name of the hotel. (Moskva is Russian for Moscow.)

According to the hotel website, the Moskva has lasted through eight different “state systems”, which is pretty remarkable. I guess the one thing the governments of Yugoslavia, Austria-Hungary, and Serbia can all agree on is that this is a lovely building. How do you say Kumbaya in Serbian?

2) OK, so what about this building?

This is the St. Sava Church–the largest Orthodox church in Serbia. Along with Belgrade Fortress, it’s one of the main symbols of the city. I’m not really sure you can say you’ve been to Belgrade unless you go here. It’s fairly recent as churches go–less than 100 years old, and it’s kept in amazing shape.

There are about 18 gold crosses on the domes and they all twinkle like perfect little golden bats. I wonder whose job it is to shine the golden crosses of St Sava? I hope it went to someone who doesn’t have vertigo.

And we haven’t even gotten to the golden basement! This basement is way more impressive than the one in my apartment building which is just home to abandoned furniture and rats. St Sava was being renovated when I visited, but I still got to see the basement even though I couldn’t peruse the wonders of the entire interior of the church.

As a bonus, it’s completely free to see all this gold! You will not even have to hand over the money you got at the National Bank with your picture on it.

3) Oh, so we’re moving to museums now?

Well, sort of! I think we’ve got too much going on during this itinerary to include a full-sized museum. But there’s definitely enough time for a smaller place like the Zepter Museum! This museum is dedicated to contemporary Serbian art–from the mid-20th century to the present.

There are Serbian artists with an international reputation these days, like Marina Abramovic, but if you want to expand your horizons and meet some other Serbian artists, this is the place to do it!

24 Hour Treasure

My favorite piece was the Room of Books, shown above, which was a collaboration between multiple artists.

Are books works of art all by themselves or do we have to do something to a book and hang it in a museum to make it art? Also I have to wonder if the artists chose books they really loved or really hated to cut into pieces and throw paint all over.

Also the Zepter Museum is located in a former bank so I appreciated they put up a statue of the former owner of the bank, Scrooge McDuck.

One Day in Belgrade Itinerary

Evening: Dinner at Bistro Jazz Cafe

Belgrade has an excellent cafe/outdoor dining culture in the summer, so you should definitely take advantage while you are there. I recommend the Bistro Jazz Cafe, which has a charming location, perfect for people watching.

Apple cocktails seemed to be all the rage in Belgrade when I was there, so I started with a Appletini that made me feel like I was starring in Sex and the City if that show took place in Belgrade and was just about one woman instead of four friends.

And this is still Serbia, so you can’t go wrong with meat! That’s not mayonnaise or butter on the side of the sausages, it’s kajmac, which is a fresh Serbian cheese.

I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do with it, so I just slathered it on both the sausages and fries. I suggest doing the same, even if it turns out to be “technically wrong”.

One Day in Belgrade

Tools For Travel

• A portable cell charger so that your phone won’t die a miserable death during your one day in Belgrade
• The best international travel adapter because if you’re American like I am, you’ll need one to be able to plug in electronics during your one day in Belgrade
• I always get good advice from Lonely Planet’s guide to the Western Balkans, including the best things to do in Serbia. They divide the guide into sections by region, which is very helpful.
• The most reliable travel umbrella that is small enough to fit in my purse, but strong enough to stand up to powerful winds on our day
• These great TSA approved clear toiletries bags, so I can always keep spare toothpaste and travel sized toiletries in any carry-on.
• My book Get Lost, that I wrote myself with all my best travel tips. This book will show you how travel can take you on a journey of self-discovery.

That’s a Perfect One Day in Belgrade Itinerary!

What would you do on a one day in Belgrade itinerary? Are you ready to start booking your hotel in Belgrade, Serbia right now? Have I committed a hideous crime by putting kajmac on fries? And did you know that Scrooge McDuck owned banks in Serbia? Please email me at stellajane@aroundtheworldin24hours.com and let me know!

Note: If you want to know how I put my travel itineraries together, just click here. Keep in mind that while each article is about how to spend 24 hours in a place, that doesn’t mean you should ONLY spend one day in Belgrade.

Find the best Belgrade tourist attractions. Experience the best Belgrade Serbia tours. You can add a Nis in Serbia day trip.